Why do so many Chinese people insistently respond in English when a foreigner speaks to them in Chinese?

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-Chinese-people-insistently-respond-in-English-when-a-foreigner-speaks-to-them-in-Chinese
An interesting question again!

It reminds me the experience I had in 2008 Shanghai Expo.
My hometown, Wenzhou, is a city in Southeastern China. It is kind of rich but you can seldom see foreigners.
Even now, I am surprised when I see some people looks totally different from me (I mean people not from Asia).
Though I traveled in other cities before 2008, it still was the first time I saw so many foreigners.
I spent a long day there, visiting many pavilions. The conversations I had with the staffs became really weird.

Staff:你好。（Hello）
Me： Hello！
Staff：需要帮助吗？（Need any help？）
Me: Where is the bathroom?
Staff: 直走左拐就是。（Go straight and turn right.）
Me: Thank you!

The weird thing was the staffs in many pavilions were from their country! (example: Staffs in German Pavilion were from German.)
So you may see a blonde speaking Chinese while a native Chinese speaking broken English.

Every time, I felt awkward after we talked. "I should speak Chinese to her!" But next time I spoke English again.


The reasons.. Hmmm, can be simple.
1 I used to see foreigners speak English.
To most Chinese, if they find a foreigner could speak Chinese, their first reaction would be "WOW, amazing!"
This is one of the important reasons why Da Shan is so popular in China.(Dashan is the Chinese stage name adopted by Canadian Mark Henry Rowswell, CM who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China. --From Wikipedia)
So when we see a foreigner, we take it for granted that we should speak English.
If you can speak some dialects in China, people will look at you as an alien!

Here is a link about a man from England. He can speak Shanghai dialect. It's interesting!
You may cannot understand,but it's interesting enough to see a British man speak good Shanghai dialect!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLr-Nps3aVQ


2 We are thoughtful.
I cannot know how is a foreigner's Chinese.I was afraid if I speak Chinese and he/she cannot understand!
So we choose to use a language we can both understand.

I have a friend who lives in Beijing. So it is common to have an American friend there.
My friend's English is really poor and his American friend can speak quite good Chinese.
At first, they both spoke English, which made both of them crazy.So after some time, they finally began to talk in Chinese. The American's Chinese is way better than my friend's English.

So it also depends whether your Chinese is good or not.

3 English works.
When I travelled in other countries (Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam...), the only language I can use was English.
Though in Thailand, I seldom spoke in complete sentences. Words are enough!

In China, English class is mandatory since elementary school.(Now many kids start to learn English as soon as they are able to speak!)
So most Chinese can speak more or less English. You can always find someone to help you if you travel in China speaking only English.

I went to a church with my host family. The whole three hours, they all spoke Chinese. And most of them are Americans!!
To be honest, I was sooo shocked.


I miss Chinese! People even speak English  in my dream!
Dear friends, speak Chinese to me!